MOFA

CASE STUDIES AND LESSONS LEARNED IN THE FORMULATION AND/OR IMPLEMENTATION OF ICT FOR AGRICULTURE STRATEGIES IN THE

ACP

The Ghanaian Case

Eddie Addo-DankwaPolicy Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation Directorate

Ministry of Food and Agriculture (Ghana)

MOFAContent

Background

The National ICT4D Policy

The Agricultural ICT Strategy

Current Situation

Lessons Learnt

Policy Formulation

Policy Implementation

Conclusion

MOFABackground

Realization of the need for a National Policy for ICT (1999/2000)

The development of the Ghana ICT4AD (2003)

The development of the Ministerial ICT Policy Statement (2005)

MOFAThe National ICT4AD Policy

Developed through a consultative process in 2003 with an objective to “engineer an ICT-led socio-economic development process with the potential to transform Ghana into a middle income, information-rich, knowledge-based and technology driven economy and society”

The Policy was designed to address key developmental challenges including “an economy that is dominated by an under-performing agricultural sector a with weak and under-developed industrial and services sector”.

The strategic focus was to “target the development of the ICT sector and industry as well as use ICTs as a broad-based enabler of developmental goals, with emphasis on the development, deployment and exploitation of ICTs to aid the development of all other key sectors of the economy”. Including Agriculture.

MOFAThe Agricultural ICT Strategy

14 Priority Focus Areas (ICT4AD Pillars)

Modernization of Agriculture and the Development of an Agro-Business Industry using ICTs as an enabler

Key Strategies: Specifically, the policy will seek to:

Promote the deployment and exploitation of ICTs to support the activities of the agriculture sector.

Develop GIS applications to monitor and support sustainable agricultural development (environment, land and water management, crops and livestock management, etc.)

Establish agriculture information systems to provide support for the planning, production, storage and distribution of crops, livestock, and fisheries products.

MOFAThe Agricultural ICT Strategy

Commitments:

Replace paper-based information systems with electronic systems

Establish WAN to link MOFA HQ with all regional and district offices, and other related institutions

Create online extension services to provide decision support systems

Establishment of management information systems

Develop Interactive websites

MOFAICTs in Agriculture – A snapshot

MOFA website www.mofa.gov.gh

WAN linking MOFA HQ and regional Offices

eExtension http://e-extensionmofa.com

Various Databases (SRID, FBOs, etc)

Market Information Systems for farmers (ESOKO)

mFarm – for managing farmers, aggregators, inputs, (M&E), etc

ECOAGRIS

Agricultural GIS Platform www.gis4ghagric.net

MOFALessons Learnt

Policy Formulation

Who owns the policy? (Ownership)

Poor coherence of ICT policy with sector policy

Non involvement of technical policy actors at the sector

Weak linkage between the sector ministry and the formulation committee

Inadequate consultations – Who was consulted?

MOFALessons Learnt

Policy Implementation

How is the policy implemented? – any implementation strategy?

Who is responsible for its implementation?

Is the current situation a result of the policy?

How organic is the ICT policy?

How is it responding to changes in the sector policy

MOFAGoing Forward ………

Ownership of the policy is about the most crucial step.

Involvement of the key stakeholders (not only ICT personnel) is very crucial

The buy-in of implementers should be obtained at all cost in the formulation stage

The ICT policy should be coherent with the sector policy

An implementation strategy should be developed to guide the implementation of the policy

Implementation should be sensitive to the dynamisms in the sector